Many mobile wireless devices have the user experience fully defined by the device manufacturer. For example, devices using iOS® from Apple Corporation do not allow client applications to manage Wi-Fi connectivity. That is, the amount of control that is available through the Wi-Fi connection manager in the operating system to a third party application is limited, such that, for example, a third party application cannot force a connection to be dropped. Therefore, as WLAN use is not quality managed by the OS it is possible to connect to a poor WLAN service.
The trend in the industry, however, is for network operators to want to offer “always best connected” services, choosing between Wi-Fi and cellular at appropriate times. The issues noted above with local device WLAN management on some devices mean they cannot influence the device to enable such choices to be automatically implemented.